Ricky Schroder, ‘Hellhounds’ Set For Unlikely Eastern European Tryst

After helping to define Hell itself over six seasons of Silver Spoons, fledgling director Ricky Schroder is taking his first-hand experience to the Sci-Fi Channel for the action epic Hellhounds — a 500 B.C. throwback about a Greek warrior who battles “the hellhounds of Hades” to get his wife out of the Underworld. He’s even going to sacrifice his Labour Day weekend to do it, schlepping all the way to Romania as we speak to start production Sunday. See? That’s why he’s Ricky Schroder and you aren’t. And the guy has more than paid his dues beyond that, acknowledging a patient two-decade wait in his producers’ Auteur Stable before finally getting saddled up for a ride:

Schroder said the project is his fifth with the Halmis, following January’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, which aired on Ion Television.

“Twenty years ago, the Halmis and I collaborated on Lonesome Dove, and I am honored that our relationship has developed to the point where they trust me to direct Hellhounds, ” Schroder said.

The project, which The Hollywood Reporter notes is “full of CGI and special effects,” is actually Schroder’s sophomore directing effort, coming four years after his indie debut Black Cloud and overlapping preproduction on a short for the suspense anthology Locker 13. Best of luck to Ricky in Eastern Europe; if anyone can keep the lauded Romanian New Wave alive in these desperate, trying times, it’s probably him.

• Ricky Schroder releases the ‘Hellhounds’ [THR]